Incidents in the mountains

More info on the above incident http://i.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/84144208/Climbers-hit-by-avalanche-on-Mt-Taranaki-during-rescue-operation

TV3 news clip http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/climber-breaks-arm-in-mt-taranaki-avalanche-2016091205

2 trampers got lost on one MeetUp hike, spend a cold night but they had survival blankets and just walked out the next morning. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11707576 Missing trampers found 'safe and well' in Hunua Ranges after night out at near-freezing levels 10:35 AM Sunday Sep 11, 2016 Two trampers reported missing overnight in the Hunua Ranges south of Auckland have been found safe and well this afternoon. The pair, from the Auckland region, got lost after getting separated from their group while walking the Workman Track yesterday. Temperatures dipped to near-freezing levels last night and police say the pair had not been expecting to stay the night in the open. However, police have just confirmed the pair, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s, were found by a ranger about 2pm. The pair were safe and well but tired. They are currently being walked out of the track and taken to their vehicles by a SAR team and do not need the assistance of a rescue helicopter, police said. They will then make their own way home. Police thanked all the search volunteers and others involved for their efforts in locating the pair. Temperatures in the Auckland region dipped overnight, with frost settling in many areas. The temperature reached 2C in Pukekohe overnight. Teams searched for the pair until shortly after 2am, calling the search off for the rest of the night before redeploying this morning at 8am, police said earlier today. The pair were reported missing by a person in their tramping group who realised they weren't behind them. Police confirmed that although the trampers were prepared for a day tramp, they had not been expecting to stay the night out in the open. It remains unclear where the group were from and if they were part of an official tramping club expedition. Mark Leys, secretary of the Pukekohe Tramping Club, said the Workman Track begins off Workman Rd, at Kaiaua, just north of Mangatawhiri, on State Highway 2. He said the last big search carried out in that part of the forest was about three years ago and took searchers about six days to find the person, thankfully, alive. Tracks in the Hunua Ranges were all "usually pretty good", he said. "But it's when you come off the track that you have [trouble]. If you've got reasonable tramping experience you will probably be okay, but if you're like a lot of people and they think, 'Well this is a well-marked track' and it's clearly defined and off they go with no map, no compass, no GPS, nothing, maybe a cellphone if you're really lucky." However, cellphone coverage in the area was "not very flash". Leys reminded anyone who was going tramping to not only take a cellphone, but also a map and a compass. ---- Follow up by missing tramper: http://www.meetup.com/en-AU/auckland-hiking/events/233880984/#event_comment-470108908 Hi guys thanks for your concerns I sorry for creating such a fuss.Christine & I were about 4 minutes behind after she repacked her gear after 2 ocklock stop .We missread the orange triangle markers on a sharp right turn .And started to follow a very rugged possum baiting trail we now know was a orange marked possum baiting trail ending up 3 hour later on a major stream .Realizing we were on wrong track we back tracked planing to return to dam car park.With darkness falling Was impossible to read markers.A led head lamp would have been usefull here. With no light only option wait for daylight Lukily both Christine & I had survival blankets Would recommend @ least 2 And possibly a bivi incase of rain.Walked out arriving @ carpark about 50kms latter around 2pm .Christine was great level headed companion Met SAR at dam .Apologies for creating such a fuss.And SAR did a fantastic job searching late @ night A' few lessons to be learnt Will post later. Thanks to all.

Maybe it's time to change trapline tape, can the words "Pest Bait Line Only" be stamped on it? There's probably better ways to indicate these markers are not to be followed...

I thought the possom lines were marked blue? Orange is known as the colour to follow so shouldnt be on tracks the public shouldnt follow

It's great to see meetup groups giving people new avenues to get out there. How long would text, or symbols, reliably stay on markers?

About as long as the tape? Like those warning tapes you see at incidents. Wrap around a tree or whatever. Just something written on it that means "don't follow me"... Better than nothing on it since some people seem compelled to follow them. One guy in the Meetup Group said bait lines can be pink, yellow or blue. Is there a national standard?

As far as I'm aware (but might be wrong) the only real standard is that DOC markers on officially recognised DOC tracks are orange triangles. Except when they aren't. If you're lucky the placement and orientation of isosceles versus equilateral triangles is more effective than confusing. Outside of that, markers of all types and colours and ages and sources are all over the place.

its extremely rare for people to get lost in the hunuas , the tracks vary from reasonably to extremely well defined it tends to be when people only look in front of them, the track changes direction and they blindly go straight ahead

Gosh, what can I say? No headlamp...you can pick them up for $5 or get a light one that weighs hardly anything. One time an MSC group did a navigating exercise and ended up coming out using the light of a cigarette lighter to follow a bearing to a track. Of course nowadays people would use cell phones until the battery died. I have to confess on one occasion Frank and I went for a reccie for a track from where we'd parked the car to follow it up the Waitaha the next day. We bush-bashed down to the Waitaha and intended following a stream back to the car park but it was too dense and finally went up a side stream (Douglas Creek) to an old track that we managed to follow back in the dusk to the car. It had white permolats covered in black mould but I think has disappeared due to flooding nowadays. It was meant to be a 10 minute reccie but Frank kept going...the funniest thing was I was only wearing a light little dress, that's all. Not even anything on my feet as that was our barefoot walking phase. And we were carrying nothing. We could have curled up to pungas and thatched shelter with scratchy old fronds at least but Frank was confident we'd get back to the car, no problem. Well, I learnt my lesson not to keep on going on following him!